I'm going to continue to eat their shit until I feel I can stop. I don't feel like that yet. My chair is absolutely the worst administrator I've ever come across. And I've witnessed some faculty get horrific and subtle punishments for not playing the game. So until someone else is chair - or I am - I'm going to smile and move along. I play with my baby and count my blessings to be fully employed, if not fully engaged.

I don't know. I just don't know. But Hiram's idea sounds pretty good (the keep-on-keeping-on part, not the losing-10 lbs.-will-make-life-better part. I'm increasingly thinking that the Health At Every Size folks are right -- or as right as anyone is -- on that subject. Or maybe I just like trying to make time for moving more and eating healthy, tasty food much more than I do traditional dieting).

Some adjuncts are planning a walkout in February. I might find a way to support that effort (despite being in a right-to-work state).

I think Hiram has it about right. I'm thinking more and more than having a long view in this profession can be an emotional danger. So I'll teach the students in front of me the stuff that matters, and let the dead bury the dead.

Of course, I live in a state that, to judge from Tuesday's results, may not have a profession of higher eduction in four years. So maybe I'll move. Somewhere with sun. And a beach, I think.

I will try to: * model effective and professional behavior in the classroom and the meeting room. * project a sense of optimism that we can work for the betterment of our institution and our roles within it, as well as our personal satisfaction.* remain helpful to colleagues by being a resource for them, their sounding board, and their advocate, particularly the newest ones.

I will try not to: * let the misdeeds of silverbacks, who should know better, goad me into acting less mature than I should be.* vent my occasional sense of hopelessness to any but my closest colleagues who I know won't also be brought down by it; I will especially try not to piss in the well in front of our newset colleagues. * empty more bottles of beer and booze than can reasonably be held in the recycle bin between weekly pick-ups.

What Was This?

College Misery was a dysfunctional group blog where professors got the chance to release some of the frustration that built up while tending to student snowflakes, helicopter parents, money mad Deans, envious colleagues, and churlish chairpeople.

Our parent site, Rate Your Students, started in 2005, and we continued that mission beginning in 2010. Ben at Academic Water Torture and Kimmie at The Apoplectic Mizery Maker both ran support blogs during periods when this blog had died.